Halo: Inheritance
by TimeLordSPARTAN
Summary: The Master Chief doesn't land on Earth. He lands in Alagaesia, where his presence just might make a pivotal difference in the battle ahead. But what could the stone be? He was told it was a dragon egg. Dragons don't exist... Do they?


**Note: this chapter has been revised due to certain inconsistencies which were pointed out in some reviews.**

* * *

**John**

_They let me pick. Did I ever tell you that? Choose whichever Spartan I wanted.  
You know me. I did my research. Watched as you became the soldier we needed you to be.  
Like the others, you were strong, swift, and brave. A natural leader.  
But you had something they didn't. Something no one saw but me. _

_Can you guess? _

_Luck. _

_Was I wrong?_

John-117 awoke to the sounds of nature. He opened his eyes to the sight of an ever-shifting canopy of green, supported by large, gnarled, wooden poles. He blinked once, twice, three times, clearing his vision, and realized he was in a forest. He sat up, bringing his MJOLNIR mk VI powered assault armor's systems back online one by one. Life support systems... all green. Waste disposal systems... again, all green. HUD... functioning perfectly. Shields... Operating at 500% charge. Wait, what? He double checked the readout before cycling his shields to check. He watched as the meter filled with blue... then red... then orange... then yellow... then green. It was almost as if his armor had obtained four rechargeable overshields. He shrugged, not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, and began to check his suit's motor functions.

Last time he had performed this check, there had been something for him to look at to calibrate. He settled for a pair of knots on the tree in front of him. A hard landing could have damaged the armor, but this time, it hadn't. Everything was there and intact...  
Except for the data crystal. It was gone, and he now had to way to retrieve Cortana from High Charity and the clutches of the Gravemind. John frantically searched his surroundings, from where he had woken up to the other end of the long trail created by his impact and subsequent skid on the ground. Nothing... Until his eyes met the stone. It was pure white, with sharp, navy-blue lines running across it in a fascinating yet familliar pattern. As he watched, a white pulse ran along one of the lines. It reminded him of Cortana. Unbidden, her face appeared before her eyes, a memory of something she'd once said to him.

_"Don't make a girl a promise," she said, her voice filled with sadness and regret, "if you know you can't keep it."_

The memory faded as the sound of far-off horses broke through his reverie. John shook himself - now was not the time to get sentimental - and picked up the stone, placing it on the Tactical/Hard Case on his left hip. He remembered what he'd been told regarding the Tactical/Trauma Kit mounted beneath it when he was eight, and chuckled.

_"Remember, this is _yours_, Spartan, for when _you_ get hit," the instructor told him. John cocked his head.  
"But I don't get hit, sir. The enemy does." The instructor threw back his head laughing.  
"That's the spirit, kid!"_

He shook himself again and set off in the direction of the sound. He froze when he noticed the creatures.

There were twenty of them. Each one was roughly humanoid in appearance, with grayish skin, bowed legs, and thick arms. They had yellow, piggish eyes, claws on their hands in place of nails, and a pair of long, twisted horns protruding from above their ears. They were easily taller than an un-augmented human, but were most definitely shorter than John himself.

Before John could do anything more than wonder if they were a new Covenant species, the horses burst into view. There were three of them, riding single file. On the first horse was a man with pointed ears and elegantly slanted eyebrows. His build was slim but strong, like a rapier. A powerful bow was slung on his back. A sword pressed against his side opposite a quiver of arrows fletched with swan feathers. The last rider had the same fair face and angled features as the other. He carried a long spear in his right hand and a white dagger at his belt. A helm of extraordinary craftsmanship, wrought with amber and gold, rested on his head. The middle rider was stunningly beautiful, with long, raven-black hair, slanted green eyes and a petite form. She was armed with an elegant bow and a sword that was clearly forged by a master of the art.

Before anything else could happen, the wind changed, bearing the horned creatures' disgusting scent straight to the horses, who reared up and gave the creatures the perfect chance to stand and fire their black arrows at the majestic convoy. The arrows rained down like a carpet-bombing run, killing all three horses and the two men instantly. The woman nimbly leapt off her mount, making sure she took the satchel she had been constantly checking and fidgeting with before with her, and glanced back at her dead companions. At the sight, she let out an anguished cry before cursing her enemies and fleeing into the woods, the monsters in hot pursuit. John thought for a moment.

His job was to protect humanity. The woman was quite clearly a member of a subspecies of humanity, if not actually human. The monsters, on the other hand, were quite clearly more related to Jiralhanae - the Brutes - and John knew exactly what his job was.

"New objective," He spoke clearly, activating the voice control of his helmet. A wave of sadness passed through him - usually, Cortana would be doing this. "Kill unknown hostiles, save the girl." The helmet pinged, and the objective appeared above his shield meter. The helmet followed up by marking the one creature remaining in the clearing with a red diamond and extrapolating this knowledge outwards to mark the other creatures. It then marked two blue diamonds, one clearly running away on the motion tracker and the other clearly a part of the creature's force.  
"Override: blue contact alpha is part of enemy force." the helmet pinged again before switching the status of the diamond in the force. John nodded before chasing after the twenty-one hostiles and the one non-hostile. He had almost reached them when he heard a scream pierce the air.

* * *

**Arya**

The Shade had her cornered. She knew there was no way out, and even if there were, an Urgal had shot her in the leg. She wouldn't be running anywhere for awhile. In desperation, she reached into the satchel, pulling out a large, sapphire-blue stone. She shouted some words in the Ancient Language, and the stone began to glow a bright blue. Desperately, the Shade tried to stop her.

"Garjz_shck_" he was cut off by the sound of his own throat being pierced straight through from behind. She saw the Shade disappear in a cloud of black smoke as the stone vanished in a burst of blue-white light.

_I must be going mad,_ Arya thought as she saw a massive, humanoid figure hurtle through the smoke, stabbing Urgals in the throat as it went. The creatures never got the chance to move - the figure was faster than an _elf! _- and the last thing she saw before darkness claimed her was the figure hurrying over to her, sheathing its strange, black knife and fumbling with something on its leg.

"Hey, don't go to sleep on me! Stay awake!" She desperately tried to hold on to consciousness as a deep, male voice echoed from behind a field of gold polished so well she could see her own, bloodless face in it, but the pain and blood loss from the arrow had made her too weak. She felt armored hands grip her leg and the arrow, ripping the shaft out of her leg with expert precision as she screamed and finally fell into oblivion.

* * *

**John**

He had exhausted half of the antiseptic in his Tactical/Trauma Kit cleaning out the leg wound. He suspected that the arrow had some kind of poison on it due to the black liquid dripping from it, though that could have just been some artificial coloring reacting with the blood. He inspected the wound after the girl passed out, seeing that it passed through only muscle. No bone, nowhere near the femoral artery. Finally, some good luck. All he had to do was cover both sides of the wound with adhesive bandages. He tugged down her leggings and applied the bandages and, for good measure, he took out a long bandage strip and wrapped it around the leg, ensuring that it wouldn't fall off. He hurriedly pulled her leggings back up to protect her modesty for when she awoke before scanning the surrounding area. He had his helmet waypoint the girl before running back to the downed horses and searching for supplies - surely she'd be hungry when she woke. The saddlebags, however, contained only vegetarian foods - nuts, leaves, et cetera. He supposed that was a good thing - meat was too easily poisoned, and some meats were just plain inedible. This girl's biology was different to a normal human's - as evidenced by her pointed ears - so he didn't even know if she could digest meat. He took all six saddlebags - each horse had two - and dug graves with his hands for her two companions. he placed them exactly six feet down before covering them again and marking the spots with crosses made from sticks tied together. he took the saddlebags back to the clearing where the girl lay to find her already awake, looking around in confusion.

* * *

**Arya**

To say that Arya Drottningu was confused would be an understatement. She had woken up on the forest floor, her leg bound in a white cloth beneath her leggings, and with no-one around. She sat up, noticing that her weapons were still with her - if she was still armed, that meant she wasn't a prisoner. She felt relieved to know this...

Until the green giant with the solid gold visor stepped into the clearing, moving so silently that even her enhanced hearing did not detect it. At the sight of the giant, she shrieked and scrambled backward before collapsing with a gasp of pain. As soon as the giant saw her doing this, it dropped the saddlebags it was holding and rushed over to her, grabbing her arms and hauling her into a sitting position. She struggled every second of the way.

"Let me go, you metal monstrosity!" she shouted, punching the giant's breastplate with all of her strength. To her surprise, her hand suddenly felt as if it were on fire for a second before it went numb as a web of golden energy flared around the creature. At the sight of this, she redoubled her efforts.

"It's alright! I'm not going to hurt you!" the creature exclaimed calmly, gripping both of her arms in its massive hands.

"What _are_ you?" Arya asked, her voice full of fear.

"I am Master Chief Petty Officer Sierra One One Seven. I am a Spartan." This explanation only served to confuse her more, but the creature wasn't finished speaking. From how ill-used its voice sounded, this was a rare occurrence, so she let it continue.

"I was there when the Arbiter killed the Prophet of Truth on the Ark, I was the one who activated Halo. I am known to the remnants of the Covenant as the Demon. I destroyed one Halo, then I fired it while it was rebuilding, destroying it a second time. I saved all sentient life in the galaxy from death, and someone has the nerve to ask me _what _I am?"

"Everything you just said makes no sense," Arya replied. Internally, she was screaming her head off and running away as fast as possible, but on the outside she was (mostly) calm and collected. The giant simply shook its head and began to open the saddlebags, pulling out some nuts and leaves. Before she could see what was happening, the creature had found a round stone with a deep indent, and had mixed the nuts and leaves together in the makeshift bowl. It - no, _he_ - handed her the bowl of salad before standing up and gathering together some wood.

"Are you sure you want to start a fire?" Arya asked. The Spartan nodded, striking a strange, almost-black knife against a piece of flint. The wood caught quickly, and they soon had a merry blaze. As night fell, the heat fronnnubudrm the flames kept her warm. Eventually, she felt simply too tired - she was weakened by that arrow - and she fell into her waking dreams, curling up on the ground as her breathing slowed. The Spartan watched her sleep for a moment, before deciding to follow her idea. He trusted the MJOLNIR armour to wake him at the slightest hint of danger, so he lay down by the elf and allowed himself to fall asleep, not noticing her snuggling up into his armor as she herself slept.

* * *

**_End of Chapter 1_**


End file.
